A violent thug has been jailed for five years for stabbing his girlfriend, who took her own life just six days later.

Karl Lee imprisoned vulnerable Christine Cram in their home on Leslie Avenue in Hebburn and set about a sustained attack in which neighbours heard her screaming for help as he slashed her with a kitchen knife and kicked her as she lay helpless on the floor.

When police forced their way into the house, on November 9 last year, they found Lee swigging from a bottle of methadone, and in interview the 34-year-old threatened to kill the woman he said he wanted to marry.

Lee pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful wounding prior to his trial and today appeared before Newcastle Crown Court for sentencing.

Prosecuting, Kevin Wardlaw told the court how, on November 8, Christine Cram complained to police that Lee had thrown a vase at her at Leslie Avenue in Hebburn. She declined to make a formal complaint, and Lee returned to the house on November 9.

But the court was told a neighbour heard shouting, including Lee telling Ms Cram it was “all her fault” that he had been taken into custody. Neighbours said they could hear her “screaming and crying for help” in a 15 to 20 minute attack.

When police arrived the doors to the house were locked. Officers forced their way in and found Lee drinking methadone. A fish tank in the living room had been smashed.

Lee was arrested and in interview he claimed his victim had damaged the fish, that he was her carer, and she had self inflicted the slash to her upper left arm and 3cm long stab wound to her abdomen. He told detectives he was going to “sort out” his victim and threatened to kill her. Six days after the attack, on November 15, Ms Cram took her own life.

In notes, she claimed that her actions “were not Karl’s fault” but that he had “used her.”

Sentencing Lee to five years in prison, Recorder Camp said he would have liked to have jailed the thug - who had 22 convictions for 81 offences, including in 2008 attacking a former partner with lit cigarettes and a broom - for longer.

“The sentence is quite insufficient to protect the public from you,” Recorder Camp told Lee, of Saxon Way, Jarrow, “but five years is the maximum that I can give you.”

Lee was also ordered to pay a £120 victim surcharge within six months of his release.